Third Ferris Wheels
by taking it easy
Summary: Kiba and Ino have no idea who the other is, all they know is they have things in common. The most blatant example: Date-Crashing. KibaIno, NaruHina, SasuSaku


_Inspired by tumblr. OTP Prompts. Follow them._

Naruto Uzumaki had lived most of his life ostracized by those around him. After an incident involving a madman, a bomb, and over thirty cups of instant ramen, Naruto's reputation took a turn for the better, but that large chunk of his life still held many memories of merely existing with nothing to look forward to. This is the reason why, after he finally got a girlfriend and was going on dates with said girlfriend, he wasn't too fazed by the fact that his friend Kiba was third-wheeling them maliciously. He was just glad to have friends in the first place.

Likewise, Naruto's girlfriend Hinata Hyuuga was ostracized, albeit on a much smaller scale. Cast out by her own family, Hinata was raised to believe she was a failure, and until the above mentioned bomber-man incident, she didn't even have the self-confidence to talk to the man of her dreams – Naruto. She was thrilled enough to actually be dating Naruto that she didn't care if her old friend Kiba tagged along everytime.

Meanwhile, Sasuke Uchiha was a brooding man with a dark past. Having witnessed his family be slaughtered by his psychotic older brother, only to find out that his brother had been a government agent preventing treason of the highest order, had definitely left its mark on Sasuke. Having overcome the traumas of his past had been a difficult journey, and now he wanted to relax and settle with his fiancé Sakura and start a new family. And it has been pretty difficult to do certain acts involved in family-making when your fiancé's best friend keeps butting in.

Sakura Haruno is just as frustrated. Even if she and her best friend Ino had made up and resolved their old rivalry over Sasuke when Sasuke asked Sakura out the first time, that didn't mean Ino could keep third-wheeling them. She waited _years_ to get Sasuke all to herself and now _Ino needed a boyfriend so she would leave them alone!_

It is these two remarkably similar situations that find us today in the Hokage Monument Amusement Park. Home to such rides as "The Yellow Flash" and "Nine-Tails," this particular park was world-famou and harbored thousands of visitors on slow days.

It was on one of these 'slow' days that both the pairs of Naruto, Hinata, and Kiba and Sasuke, Sakura, and Ino found themselves in line for the large Ferris wheel named "The Sharingan."

"It's over one-hundred feet tall and you're supposed be able all of Konoha from the top," Sakura gushed, leaning into Sasuke's side and smiling warmly. The stoic man found his own lips twitching upwards at the contact.

Ino came up from behind and sat up chin unceremoniously on Sakura's other shoulder, complaining all the while, "Ugh, how much longer will we have to wait?"

With the moment killed, Sakura sighed, and stood straight, "The line isn't that long."

Behind them, Naruto and Hinata were holding hands, smirking at the pair directly before them.

"Looks like we're not the only unlucky couple, huh, Hina-chan?" Naruto grinned a feral grin, and nuzzled his face into Hinata's neck, eliciting a fierce blush and gasp from the blue-haired lady.

Kiba peeked around the blonde to see what he meant. "Ha! Awesome! A kindred spirit." He smirked before leaning his elbow on Naruto's shoulder, almost managing to push the other two down, had Naruto not been expecting something.

A few minutes passed, and the line dwindled as people either left or got into the carts, until the two trios got to the front, and all six entered the same cart. The two couples sat in two adjacent seats, while their respective friends sat the seat opposite them, leading to an arrangement that left Sakura and Hinata sitting next to each other in a corner, and Sasuke and Naruto sitting at opposite corners. Kiba was sitting in the seat adjacent to Sasuke, while Ino sat by Naruto.

As the wheel started turning, and the group started ascending, Sakura leaned over to Hinata, who was awkwardly sitting there blushing with Naruto's arm around her shoulder, and Sakura said to her, "We're on a date and blondie right there is our third wheel. What about you?"

Sakura watched the blush on Hinata's face grew more intense, and Naruto, who had heard the pink-haired one talk, snickered before looking at her, "Yeah, the one with the goofy face tattoos is with us."

"Hey!" Kiba interjected indignantly, trying in vain to cover his cheeks with his hands. Each of his cheeks sported a red triangle reminiscent of a clown's face paint. "It's better than whiskers!"

At this Naruto blushed and grimaced, and Ino noticed the three distinct whisker marks on Naruto's face. "Whoa, are those a birth mark?" The female blonde asked.

Naruto, who was looking increasingly uncomfortable, merely ducked his head and pulled Hinata closer, eliciting another hot blush as the two shy lovers tried to avoid attention.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow from his cool position of leaning back in the seat. Draping his arms across the back, he eyed Ino, "It's bad enough you annoy us all the time, don't go ruining it for other people."

Aghast at the blatant demand, and seeing no help coming from a sheepish Sakura, Ino retorted, "It's not like their unused to it! Apparently Mr. Face-Paint does the same thing I do!"

 _That_ is when it really started. Kiba immediately retaliated. "Whoa! Whoa! 'Same thing'? Not even close! I'm a way better third-wheel than you probably are!"

Noticing the fire starting in Ino's eyes, and knowing that an argument would soon break out, Sakura made to mediate the exchange, but was held back when Sasuke grabbed her waist. She looked to him to see a look on his face that said, "They're not annoying us right now, don't ruin it."

Sakura then looked to Hinata, hoping she'd do something, she had seemed sensible enough. She saw Hinata leaning on Naruto's shoulder and the two were smiling nonsensically, watching the ensuing debate and _enjoying the show._

"— _Fourteen corndogs!_ It as both ironic and unromantic!" Kiba was boasting proudly. Sakura and Sasuke blinked when they noticed Naruto and Hinata chuckling at what was undoubtedly the memory Kiba was pulling up.

"Yeah?! Well, on Sasuke and Sakura's third date, _I went—"_ Sakura gasped as Ino proceeded to share the humiliating memory, and Sasuke watched with limited amusement the horror that slowly grew onto Naruto and Hinata's faces. He noticed Hinata looking to them sympathetically, and Sakura ducking her head down as far as she could in the restraints.

And so the ride passed, with Ino and Kiba dredging up all of their prior antics, trying to one up the other in some inane contest of third-wheeling.

Sakura and Sasuke and Naruto and Hinata eventually tuned them out, not wanting to ruin their date, and when the Ferris wheel inevitably stopped with the six at the top, the two couples had made their own embraces, watching the village below.

Kiba and Ino, meanwhile, had toned down their argument and were sitting in their shared corner just exchanging funny stories, not all of them date-based.

Then, when the six had made it to the one spot where the rider truly had the best view, where one could see the city below, and the sky above, and all around them as well, without the other carts marring the otherwise perfect scene, the two couples realized that it was silent in their compartment, and they looked to the corner in which Kiba and Ino sat, only to see the two simply looking out over the village.

The two date-crashers were holding hands, Sasuke noticed; and Naruto saw that Kiba's normal ubiquitous grin was warmer and sweeter than normal. Hinata and Sakura looked to each other and giggled silently, not wanting to ruin the moment.

Once the group made the full round trip, and exited the ride, Ino and Kiba were still holding hands. Naruto smirked, and so did Sakura, and the two snickered before looking at each other and nodding.

Hinata and Sasuke watched as they crept quietly, carefully, to the new pair and simultaneously plowed between them, throwing their arms over their respective friend's shoulders and saying at once, "Well that sure was fun, huh?"


End file.
